Chancellor Gordon Brown has ruled out a give-away Budget ahead of the General Election.

Instead, the creation of jobs would be his priority for a third term in office, he told the Scottish Labour Party's spring conference in Dundee.

"The Budget will lock in our commitment to monetary vigilance and fiscal discipline," Mr Brown said.

The Chancellor will deliver his annual budget on March 16 ahead of Labour's bid for a third successive victory at a General Election expected on May 5.

Some Labour strategists, worrying that the party's core supporters will not turn out to vote, have been calling for vote-winning tax-and-spend giveaways in the budget.

And economists have forecast that growing public debt meant that Mr Brown risked breaking his "golden rule" that the government borrows only to invest over the economic cycle.

That could mean tax increases or public spending cuts after the election, a claim the Chancellor denied.

"We will meet all our fiscal rules in a prudent and longterm way, and we will take no risks with stability now, in the next parliament or at any time," he declared.

Mr Brown said his recent visit to China - during which he promoted MG Rover's proposed joint-venture with Chinese carmaker Shanghai Automotive Indudstries Corporation - had given him an insight into how new technologies, and new industries would "transform" the industrial climate.

"In the new economy that Britain must fashion, there will be no place for the old complacencies or inflexibilities, no room for resistance to change, outmoded ways of working or the old restrictive practices from whatever quarter they come.

"There is no shelter in protectionism. We will have to adapt more quickly and change more rapidly than ever before.

"We must be prepared to make any necessary change, implement any necessary new laws, introduce any necessary new incentives, and take on any vested interest to make our country the most adaptable, flexible, skilled, enterprising and innovative in the global economy."

Unemployment in Britain, at around 4.7 per cent, is about half the level in some of its major European counterparts.

As he puts the finishing touches to his Budget statement, Mr Brown's confidence in the British economy will be underlined by data that shows that business confidence among service sector firms has increased for the first time in nine months.

A poll of 183 firms showed a particularly healthy picture in air travel and telecoms companies, where jobs rose in recent months at the fastest rate for more than six years.

Job levels remained in cinemas and tour operators even though profits rose, according to the research for the CBI and Grant Thornton.

Ian McCafferty, CBI Chief Economic Adviser, said: "Firms providing business and professional services saw jobs increase at the fastest rate on record but failed to increase profitability, while firms providing consumer services recorded the strongest rise in profitability for a year but failed to increase jobs for the first time in 18 months."